


Ten Years' Difference

by Lokislittlearmy



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adult Ladybug, Akuma Possession, Cute Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 04:24:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10482018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokislittlearmy/pseuds/Lokislittlearmy
Summary: When an akuma strikes Chat Noir, it swaps him with who he is ten years from now. He has a conversation with future Ladybug while future Chat Noir fights alongside his partner.Alternatively: Chat Noir gets a strange feeling as he's on patrol, and is suddenly fighting beside Ladybug ten years ago. Good thing he knows what to do.





	1. To the Future

Chat hardly heard Ladybug’s shouts as he ran forward. The akuma stared him down with a smirk that made his blood rush in his ears. She pointed her staff at him, clock at the end spinning as she did so. If he could get to her, he could break the staff. He’d been thrown back in time beside his partner too many times. He was tired. He wanted to go home.

He wasn’t thinking straight.

She fired just before he reached her. He only saw her grin, only heard Ladybug’s cries as he fell to the ground. The pavement beneath him seemed to shift beneath his hands. The akuma walked away, muttering something about time. He needed to get up and save Ladybug, help her defeat the akuma—this had happened too many times. She would chew his head off later for this. 

He twisted on the pavement to watch her, but she flickered in and out of view. Everything did. The scene before him changed, day to sunset and back again, the cars passing on the street appearing and reappearing. Not like the rotation of the Earth, but like static. The only thing that stayed constant was the akuma stalking toward Ladybug. And that was the image he carried with him as he blacked out.

He awoke to Ladybug calling his name from just above him. He groaned. “I know. I won’t do it again,” he said like a child responding to their parent’s lecture. Her magic should have made him feel better than this, but his stomach churned as he pushed himself to sit. He rubbed his eyes. Ladybug was suspiciously silent beside him. Usually, she’d be telling him he said that every time and _why can’t you just save yourself for once?_

It wasn’t Ladybug that was there when he opened his eyes, though. At least, it wasn’t the Ladybug he knew. She had her eyes. Her hair was the same color. Her color scheme was the same. But her hair was cut short, she looked older, and her costume was completely different. Instead of the red and black suit he’d come to love, she wore a jacket with those spots, and black pants and gloves. Similar, but more intricate. More unique, if anything. 

She stared at him with the same worry, though, even if it was mixed with confusion. “Ch...chaton?” she whispered. 

Chat felt frozen. He couldn’t even blink. Or move his hands to rub his eyes. He had to force his mouth open to speak. “Ladybug?”

She held her black-gloved hands out as if waiting for him to put his in them. He did, after a moment. She looked down at his hands with a curious intensity. “You look so much younger. What happened?”

He still had no idea what to make of this. Which was understandable, he supposed. “I...There was an akuma. Mistress Era. I charged forward, and she hit me, and now I’m here.” He looked around. The place looked the same, despite his partner’s changes. “Where am I? Or when am I?”

Ladybug pursed her lips. “It’s April 2, 2027.”

“So...ten years from then?” He clarified, meeting her eyes again. He hadn’t taken his hands from hers. “I...” He stood, ripping his hands away. “I need to get back. I need to help her. She won’t be able to defeat her on her own.”

“It’s okay,” Ladybug said with a hand on his shoulder. “I remember. She’s not alone. Chat from now will be there with her then.” She waited for Chat’s breathing to slow from hyperventilating to at least somewhat healthy before pulling him in for a hug. “It’s alright. I’m here now, so I must have come out okay then, right?”

He had to agree with that. His arms wrapped around her. It felt strange. It didn’t feel like his partner. She was taller than him. He grew too, right? His eyes narrowed over her shoulder. “I have questions.”

“I figured you would.” She pulled away. “Follow me.”

She led him to the tallest platform of the Eiffel Tower. It was always windy, yes, but always secluded. She sat on the edge, feet swinging, and motioned for him to sit next to her. “So you’re really Ladybug ten years from now?” he asked as he did so. She nodded, smile growing. He crossed his ankles. “And you’re the same person behind the mask?” Another nod. He thought for a second, wondering if he should even ask this, and decided to do it after all. “Do we know who the other is?”

Her smile faded, but only slightly. She looked away and down toward the city, at the lights that switched on as the sky faded to black. “We do. It’ll be a long time from your perspective, but yes.” She waited for him to respond, but he had nothing to say. “But we’ve gotten so used to it that Chat will probably have a hard time not outing himself in the past.”

He groaned. “I hope I don’t. I can’t imagine what present—or past, I guess—you would think of me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I--” He groaned again, face twisting as he searched for the words. “You know how much you hate Chloe, right?”

“But you’re not her,” she said. “Adrien, you’re wonderful. You’re nothing like her. You don’t think I know that already?”

“Did you know that when we revealed ourselves?”

“Through a series events, yes, I did.” She shifted in her seat, feet stilling in the air. “We’re partners. You know that no matter what, who you are under the mask is nothing compared to the Chat Noir I know. Silly and confident and smart and, as much as I will regret saying this, a master at cat puns.”

He felt a smile twitch at his lips as he looked up at her. “You really think that?”

“Of course I do.” She met his eyes and combed a hand through his hair in a comforting gesture. “And the person under _this_ mask will learn to love you just as much as you love her. That’s a promise.”

His smile turned sorrowful as he wrapped his hands around her wrist. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, my Lady.”

“I’m not.” She took her hand away as gently as she could and sighed. “I’ve probably already told you too much, but if he can talk to me about the future, then I can do the same. So, I won’t say anything on my own, but keep asking questions.”

He crossed his legs on the edge. “So we’re still Ladybug and Chat Noir in the future? Papillon is still out there?”

“His villains get increasingly easier. And we’re not alone anymore. We’ve got plenty of support behind us.” He could tell there was a double meaning behind her words, but he also knew she was being vague on purpose. So he decided not to ask for elaboration.

“Are you happy?” he asked. “Living like this?”

“Of course I am,” she responded after a beat of hesitance. “I have-” She cut herself off as if debating whether to speak. She smiled at him. “I have you.”

The words brought a blush to his face. She said them fondly. She said them like she would have said the words he only dreamed of hearing. Simply the thought made his mind blank for a moment. He fumbled for words, finding nothing. Instead, he just stuttered his way through incoherent noises while blushing furiously beneath his mask. Ladybug giggled, raising her hand to her mouth to cover her grin.

She waited for his ability to speak to return before speaking again. “For future reference, I ask that you make a habit of rinsing your dishes before putting them in the sink.” And there it goes again. Chat choked on his own breath as he realized what that actually meant. Ladybug didn’t even try to hide her grin this time, openly laughing at his reaction.

“We live together?” he yelled, bewildered. “Like, in the same space?”

“Same apartment, yes,” she responded. She started kicking her legs again with a grin spread across her face. “Don’t worry, you’re not bad to live with. It’s Plagg that bugs me the most. He snores. It keeps me up at night.”

“That makes two of us,” Chat groaned. He tried not to dwell too deeply on her words, but his mind supplied everything anyway. She could hear Plagg, which meant that they were sleeping in the same room, which meant more likely than not that the two heroes were sleeping in the same bed. He flushed a shade deeper, expression developing into a troubled one.

Ladybug fell back onto the cooling metal. She folded her hands over her stomach. “Believe me, Adrien, everything will make sense eventually. I’ve always loved you. Even if I didn’t love you romantically ten years ago, we’ve been partners for twelve. I can’t imagine where I’d be without you.”

After a moment, Chat laid beside her, pushing his feet over the edge in parallel. “I feel the same, my Lady.”

The sky started flickering like it had when Chat first arrived. Day to sunset and back again. He kept his eyes fixed to the sky, ignoring how his partner wasn’t fully there. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, it was day, and he was alone.

It took a moment for him to gather his thoughts and make his way to Ladybug. She was still in the same square that they’d last seen each other. She turned to him as she holstered her yo-yo. Her eyes were red, like she’d been crying. She darted to him and threw her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. “Never take anything for me again. We’re a team. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Chat felt dread settle like a rock in his stomach. He’d swapped places with himself, right? What happened to him that could make her react like this? Future her didn’t say anything, so it couldn’t be that bad, right? He hugged her back, bowing his head. “I promise, my Lady.”

He heard her sniffle. Her earrings beeped. He swiped a strand of hair aside. “You only have a couple minutes left. You should get out of here.”

“I know.” She didn’t move. Chat rubbed small circles on her back. After a few seconds, she pulled away just enough for him to see her face.

He wiped a tear away from under her eye, away from the mask. She looked up at him. He gave her a small, solemn smile. “I’m right here, Ladybug. It’s okay. I had a wonderful chat with future you. You age purr-fectly, if you don’t mind my saying.”

She pushed him away, smile breaking through the tears. “You’ll be happy to know your cat puns are just as unbearable ten years from now.”

“Would you say they...bug you?” He flashed her a cheshire grin. She groaned, but her smile stayed as she bounded away through the Parisian streets.


	2. Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering how Chat's trip to the past went...

Chat felt the static before he saw it. He felt the tingling in his skin whenever he was near an akuma nowadays. He whirled around, looking for it. Maybe he could just handle it on his own. Ladybug was hardly a couple meters away. She looked up at him from the ground. After a moment, he jumped off the building he stood on.

Ladybug flinched, black-gloved hands curling into fists. “Chat, I told you not to do that. You’re going to break something.”

“You act like I’ve never broken a bone,” he said with a teasing roll of his eyes. His hand flew to his baton as he felt a spike in the static. “Listen, I feel an akuma but I don’t see one.”

She looked around. “You’re sure about this?” she asked.

“Positive. I-” Another spike in the energy sent him to his knees. This was different. This was how he used to feel, before the akumas got weaker and he got stronger, when he first started feeling this energy. He looked up at Ladybug. She seemed to be flickering in and out of existence. She dropped beside him to scream his name. 

He vaguely remembered this specific feeling. When the phases in the static got long enough, he could recognize the villain. She stalked toward Ladybug with a cheshire grin. He hardly waited for the phasing in and out between time to stop before charging forward. But unlike his past counterpart would have, he didn’t go for the akuma. He reached Ladybug just in time to pull her out of the way of a blast.

“I’ll explain when we get away from her,” he said before throwing her over his shoulder and running off. Ladybug would remember and have his head for that, but he just wanted her safe. She could respect that, right? Well, a cat could dream.

He stopped a few rooftops away to set her down. She stumbled but didn’t fall. Her eyes went wide when she saw him. He blinked in confusion before remembering. A grin spread across his face. “Hey, Marinette. So to debrief, the akuma zapped the me you know ten years from now, and vice versa. So I’m the same Chat Noir, just ten years from now.”

Her surprise turned to something of worry. His grin dropped as he ran back through what he’d said. Did he say something wrong? Accidentally give away his identity already? But no, her hand raised to trace the scar down the side of his face. It peeked out from under the left side of his mask, beside his eye, and ran into his collar. He’d managed to get rid of the awful bell when he redesigned, repairing the mask as well. But… “The magic gets finicky under certain circumstances. I’m okay.”

“I...” She tried to find the words as she took her hand away. “I have so many questions.” She bit at her lip. Chat frowned.

“Stop biting your lip. You do it in the future, too. You’d chap your lips if I didn’t stop you.” 

She stopped. “You know who I am?” she asked without further hesitation.

He put on a nervous smile. “Well. It’s been ten years. A lot has changed.”

“Like?” She stepped forward.

He tried to look for a way out, or at least the proper wording that wouldn’t give away his identity. “Like, our costumes. If you’ll notice, I got rid of that atrocity. And yours is different, too. You designed both of the suits. And the akumas get easier.”

She frowned at him. He noticed how short she looked in comparison. Well, he thought, it’s payback for her being six inches taller than me when we were younger. “You know what I mean,” she said.

He did. As much as he hated it, he knew exactly what she meant. He sighed and looked away. “We’re celebrating our anniversary on Saturday. We live together. It’s a nice one-bedroom with a decent view. Plagg—my kwami—snores, and I’m sorry about that. Overall, the future is pretty domestic. Anything else?”

Ladybug looked frozen in shock. Which she was. Maybe she wasn’t expecting them living together. Wait, he’d said Plagg’s name. He never mentioned the creature as Adrien, did he? He really needed to be more careful. She blinked and looked away. She took her bottom lip between her teeth for a second before releasing it again. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s a long way off. You’ll understand when you get there.” He tried to remember what Ladybug had told him. The questions she might have. His civilian identity flashed through his mind. “Um, future you said you have a crush on Adrien right now. That’s also a long story, but one with a good resolution. I promise.”

She seemed so tiny, looking up at him like that. Almost like she was afraid. He felt the need to bend down to her level, but resisted. She folded her hands. “We’re still friends?”

“Great friends,” Chat responded. He remembered something else she told him and put his hand on her shoulder. “He’s happy, Marinette. And unless there’s something my girlfriend isn’t telling me, you will be too.” He waited for her to smile before grinning. “Now, let’s go beat that akuma, shall we?”

They darted beside each other to the rooftop nearest her street. The villain stalked down the street, twirling her staff in one hand, skirt bouncing around her. Chat watched the way she moved, belt tail twitching. Her heels clicked down the pavement, one foot directly in front of the other. She held her head high. The weapon was obviously her staff, but she had several other vulnerabilities. He could probably take her down on his own. If she was a recent akuma, that is. But this was ten years ago, before Papillon’s creativity had dwindled and his energy was spent on smaller and more frequent villains. She would be smarter than she looked.

Chat hardly noticed Ladybug watching him. He stared down at the akuma with a pensive glare that simply wouldn’t belong to his chubby-faced younger counterpart. He dimly registered that it probably seemed odd to Ladybug, if not a bit scary. But he pushed the thoughts aside. He needed to focus to figure out the best way to get them both out of this safe. 

He nodded to himself and looked over to Ladybug, bright eyes and grin reappearing. “Well, there’s no purr-fect offense for her, but she doesn’t seem too hard to take down.”

She had to take a second to process the flip of a switch in his demeanor. But she understood quickly. “Okay. The staff is her weapon. If we can get that without getting blasted, then we win.”

“Given how she got me, we should be quiet. Another close-range shot might mix up the timelines even worse.” The future would be fine, but that was only because they were cautious in the past. He would have to think this out perfectly. 

Ladybug scowled. “Maybe one of us should distract her while the other gets the staff?”

“Yeah. I’ll distract her.” He dropped from the building without another word. The akuma’s eyes snapped to him immediately. She didn’t even say anything before she started firing. He could see the streak of red dart overhead, but the akuma didn’t notice. Good. He dodged another shot. He couldn’t stop moving. He didn’t want to think of what would happen if he did.

Regardless, he was actually breaking a sweat. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually fought with an akuma. A grin broke across his face as he swung his baton out, broke it in two, and used it to gain some altitude. He started using them as stilts of sorts, lofting himself above her and dodging her shots with ease. He laughed as he did so, which only served to enrage her further. Ladybug dropped down behind her, the picture of silence and elegance. He continued his dance as she inched forward.

She wrapped a hand around the edge of the staff. The akuma stopped firing, eyes going wide, and swung to hit Ladybug right in the stomach with the side of the clock. Ladybug fell back across the pavement with a groan. Chat froze for hardly a second, for the second it took for shock to turn into pure anger. He dropped down from his stilts and clicked them back into one weapon as he darted forward. 

He swung his baton at the akuma’s ankles, tripping her back onto the pavement. She jumped up as quickly as she could and pointed the weapon at him. 

Ladybug threw her yo-yo up from the ground for a Lucky Charm, a spool of thread coming back down. “Don’t bother,” Chat Noir yelled back to her.

He ducked under a shot and rushed toward the akuma. He ducked under the weapon and pointed it to the sky as he did so. The position put him in close quarters with the akuma. He gave her a cold glare. “Don’t hurt my partner,” he warned before snatching the weapon away. He broke it over his knee.

Ladybug clamored up with a slight yelp of pain to cleanse it. A white butterfly flapped away. Chat ran to Ladybug, starting to fuss over her as he always did. “I’m okay,” she insisted. She held up the spool of thread. “You’ll disappear when I do this, right?”

Chat nodded. “I have a bug of my own to get back to,” he teased.

“Then I want to say thank you. For helping me.” She threw the spool with the standard cry.

White bubbles started engulfing everything that had been destroyed, people appearing on the street. Chat grinned brightly to her. “I look forward to the future,” he said before they engulfed him as well.

He found himself in the setting sun of Paris. Rather than wait around for his girlfriend, he ran to the Eiffel Tower as quickly as he could. Sure enough, she was laying on the platform, eyes closed. He laid next to her and swung his feet over the edge. “Did you miss me, my Lady?”

She scoffed, opening her eyes to stare at him lovingly. “Hard to miss you when you’re right here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell at me on Tumblr: pixellite16.tumblr.com
> 
> Also, I promise I'm working on that Adrithanette fic but I really wanted to write this. It's probably been done before. Luckily, I don't care. I wrote this over the course of 3 solid hours so it might not be perfect. But I just want fluff. But you can't tell me that Chat won't sustain some sort of injury as a result of his constant self-sacrificing.
> 
> Anyway. Let me know if you have requests or suggestions!


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